Subarctic Crime

On the last competition day of the Festival I managed to see 3 more films. I started with “Lou,” an Australian entry about a young family, a 27 year-old mother of 3 daughters. In financial crisis they take in the deadbeat dad’s father played by John Hurt. As he can no longer care for himself properly, the state will pay for his care. The 12-year-old, Lou [-ise] reacts with outrage and petulance; she must give up her room to this intruder who, in his own words is “losing his marbles.” The younger girls are taken with his talk of the sea and exotic lands. Hurt’s character is smitten with Lou mistaking her for his wife Annie who abandoned him at the onset of his memory loss. The writer/director, Belinda Chayko walks a very dangerous line in the development of the relationship between the lost and delusional Doyle and the precocious and rebellious Lou. We are taken into the fears, suspicions, misunderstandings and ignorance that are manifest by the caretakers and the cared for. This is an important film for its heart and its hope. The performances are first rate and the cinematography is gorgeous particularly the night burning of the cane fields a subtle metaphor visited throughout the film. Racing cross-town I just managed to slip into “Lope,” a Brazilian costume drama by Andrucha Waddington. Set in baroque Spain it chronicles the youthful indiscretions of Lope de Vega, perhaps the most prolific author of all times. It’s a sexy, swashbuckling adventure with fine performances and exquisite art direction. My last film of the day was a long and often tiring Swedish thriller about a young ambitious and amoral student looking for a get rich scheme. “Easy Money” follows JW as he sinks deeper and darker into the criminal underworld of modern Sweden. Is this a trend? Steig Larsson, Henning Menkell, Sjowall & Wahloo [sorry, I still can’t make diacritical marks], Lackberg and many others have created a genre some call “subarctic crime.” Jens Lapidus, like Larsson, has written [is writing] a trilogy aptly titled “The Swedish Noir Trilogy.” This is the first installment and the novel as well as the film are big hits in Sweden. The film may not get the same reception here, as it is extremely slow. Still, it has a lot going for it and as a lover of all “noir” I can certainly recommend it to the like-minded.
Oh, yeah, I saw Elliot Gould at the premiere of "The Encore of Eddie Duran."